{"id":555515,"date":"2026-04-28T18:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T18:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:50:10","slug":"deontay-wilder-manager-joshua-fight-never-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555515\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontay Wilder Manager: Joshua Fight \u2018Never Was\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan\u2019t be disappointed about something that never was,\u201d Finkel said to Sky Sports. \u201cEddie never reached out to us, and Joshua obviously had no intention of fighting Deontay Wilder. Same old story, just a new date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The comments challenge recent suggestions from Eddie Hearn that Anthony Joshua could face Wilder before a planned showdown with Tyson Fury later in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Joshua is instead set to face Kristian Prenga on July 25 in Riyadh, ending any immediate speculation about a long-discussed clash with Wilder.<\/p>\n<p>Just a few weeks ago, Eddie Hearn was out here calling Wilder a warm-up fight for Joshua\u2019s planned clash with Tyson Fury. That is a heavy-duty marketing move. It keeps the fans engaged and makes it look like AJ is willing to take on the most dangerous puncher in the division just to stay busy.<\/p>\n<p>However, Shelly Finkel\u2019s response is interesting. He flat-out said there was \u201cno reason\u201d to be frustrated because no real approach was ever made. If Hearn was serious, an email or a phone call to Finkel would have been the first step. According to Wilder\u2019s camp, that never happened.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of Wilder, Joshua is now officially set to face little-known Prenga. This move serves two purposes for Joshua\u2019s camp: It\u2019s a much safer stay busy fight while Joshua rehabilitates after his car accident earlier this year. It also clears the path for the massive Fury fight at the end of 2026 without the risk of Wilder ruining the payday with a single right hand.<\/p>\n<p>This has been the pattern for years. We saw it in 2019 when the undisputed talks collapsed and again in 2023 when they were both on the \u201cDay of Reckoning\u201d card, but were never actually paired up.<\/p>\n<p>Wilder, who recently returned to the ring with a win over Derek Chisora, has also mentioned interest in a future fight with unified champion Oleksandr Usyk.<\/p>\n<p>Finkel\u2019s remarks suggest the Joshua fight remains in familiar territory, discussed publicly, but never formally pursued behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Reynolds is a boxing analyst covering major fights and career turning points, with a focus on performance, trajectory, and long-term implications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCan\u2019t be disappointed about something that never was,\u201d Finkel said to Sky Sports. \u201cEddie never reached out to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-555515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}